The trip was made with two main objectives; to evaluate the damage in Vanuatu following Cyclone Pam and how to allocate the FIFA Humanitarian Fund in support of the recovery process, and to assess the damage to the football infrastructure in order to present a dossier to FIFA for support with the reconstruction or rehabilitation.
Showing support to the Government of Vanuatu, donors and development partners, cyclone survivors as well as visiting affected children from the Just Play Programme and their families were also on the agenda.
Chung says seeing the devastation this weather event has caused in the lives of his friends and colleagues from the football fraternity is eye-opening and he is keen to start assisting in the rebuilding of their lives.
“You see the images on TV and in the news, but sometimes it is not until you are confronted with them that you realise the true extent of the damage,” he says.
“I hope that by making a full assessment of the damage to the homes of Vanuatu Football Federation staff and football infrastructure, we can make a significant contribution to getting people back into their own homes.”
Chung met with Vanuatu Prime Minister Joe Natuman to express his condolences and support for the country and its people.
Prime Minister Natuman is aware of the campaign OFC is currently running in collaboration with UNICEF during the 2015 Fiji Airways OFC Champions League – the Vanuatu Cyclone Appeal – and thanked Chung, OFC and UNICEF for the initiative.
The OFC’s award-winning Just Play Programme is another avenue that the region’s governing football body is utilising to aid the recovery efforts with a presentation outlining the post-cyclone activities delivered by VFF Just Play Project Manager Rorona Kalsakau and UNICEF’s Vika Waradi.
OFC Head of Social Responsibility and International Relations Franck Castillo says the New Zealand High Commissioner Georgina Roberts attended the informative session, while the Australian High Commission was represented by Program Manager for Health and Infrastructure Unit Patrick Haines. They were joined by VFF President Lambert Maltock and Joseph Hing of UNICEF.
“The work we are doing through this partnership with the OFC and working with our implementing partners at VFF via the Just Play Programme, is an important part of our work to address issues such as psychosocial support,” UNICEF Pacific representative Karen Allen says.
“Children may need support to cope with, and overcome, the stress of the cyclone. The use of sport, in this case football, is a powerful tool in the emotional recovery process allowing children to have fun at a stressful time, connect with each other, collaborate, play and process their experiences.”
On Friday the visiting group travelled to Santo, the largest of Vanuatu’s islands, where they inspected the work that has been started on the regional technical centre.
Chung will make his recommendation to FIFA about the allocation of the grant it has provided.

Share